Donald Trump at the White House, Washington, March 2, 2026. SAUL LOEB/AFP
Manipulate Donald Trump? Force him to do anything? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laughed off the suggestion on Monday, March 2, in an interview on Fox News. Asked by host Sean Hannity about the increasingly volatile situation in the Middle East, Netanyahu delivered an unchallenged oratorical performance, selling both the necessity of war to the American public and the president's vision. "This is going to be a swift and decisive action," and not an "endless war," he promised, portraying Iran as a mortal threat to the United States. "Iran is 50 North Koreas," the Israeli PM said. "Iran is committed to your destruction, and whether people understand it or not, the leader has to understand it. Donald Trump understands it. You don't have to drag him into anything," he said, before concluding on a positive note: "We are fighting here the bad guys. We are the good guys."
On the heels of the bombings of three Iranian nuclear sites in June 2025 and the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on January 3, Trump appears to have gotten an appetite for high-risk military operations. While imperial hubris is not new for an American president, the Trump administration's inability to justify the urgency and objectives of the war has fueled speculation of a different nature: that of Israeli pressure. "I might have forced Israel's hand," Trump claimed Tuesday during a press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
